Thursday, 17 May 2012

THE Federal Government may soon put in place a policy that would
enforce local content in goods purchased by Ministries, Department and Agencies
(MDAs) in the country.

The policy, government said, would compel governments at all
levels and their agencies to patronise made in Nigeria products.

Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, said
yesterday that the extension of the local content to goods procured by
government’s organisations was aimed at increasing the productive
capacity of local industries for job creation, wealth generation and,
ultimately, economic growth and development.

Aganga spoke during the ongoing workshop on “Enhancing
the Productivity of Industries,” in Lagos, on Tuesday.

He said that his ministry was working with the Manufacturers
Association of Nigeria to ensure that local manufacturers also got higher
shares in the supply of goods to be procured by the government.

“We are
looking at the list of things that are procured by the Federal Government
because the government is the biggest spender in the economy. So, we are
looking at the items that are procured locally. We are working with the
industries to find out which of these items are available locally, so that our
local manufacturers can be patronised.

“One of
the highlights of the workshop today is how we can put in place an
institutionalised framework that will allow us to match the government, the
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and innovators to possibly have an off-take agreements with them so that manufacturers
can use that to raise funds needed to grow their businesses.”

He added: “We are thinking of reviewing our local procurement
procedures to differentiate between locally manufactured products and the ones
that are imported. Where there is a differential of about 15 per cent, we will
review that to see if 15 per cent is the right number, or whether some sectors
should be less or more. We are working with MAN to come up with the right
number in this regard,” he said.

The minister said the Federal Government was considering a
new paradigm that would boost the development of the steel industry, as part of
industrial revolution.

Aganga said that his ministry would partner the Ministry of
Solid Minerals and Steel Development to implement a backward integration
policy that will enable the country explore and process the abundant iron
ore deposits across the country, in order to support industrial growth and
development.

“We are
also embarking on an industrial revolution that is anchored on areas where we
have comparative and competitive advantage, such as agri-business, solid
minerals and petrochemicals. Also, we are concentrating on growing the
industries that are labour-intensive so that we will be able to create jobs for
our teeming population. For example, in the mining-related industry, we are
collaborating with the Ministry of Mines and Steel to develop the chain in the
steel sector.

“There is
no industrialised country without growth in its iron and steel industry. In
Nigeria, we import raw materials for the steel industry, yet we have them a
lot. As part of our industrial revolution, we need to embark on big strategies,
working with the Ministry of Solid Minerals and Steel Development, to process
the raw materials used for the steel industry.”

GOVERNOR Babatunde Fasholaof Lagos State has called on private
investors to help the state government in the implementation of the Lagos
Island West Re-development Scheme.

Fashola made the call in Lagos at the 2012 Lagos Architects
Forumorganised by the Lagos Chapter of Nigerian Institute of
Architects (NIA).

The theme of the forum was “Lagos 3.0: Urban Mass Housing and Homes
in Lagos”.

The governor said that the focus of the forum was topical
because the state government was trying to make some interventions in the
housing sector through the scheme.

According to him, the state government intended to lead by
example by encouraging investors in that field.

“The
documentary presented here today on ‘First Cities, Future Cities’ is
relevant to what the Lagos State Government is doing in the scheme, where we
are hoping that almost all of the buildings would go high rise.

“The
government also has what we call Lagos Homes, where the state wants to
replicate a particular design that unifies particular families in a whole
setting. A block of four flats having a whole family in one-bedroom,
two-bedroom and three-bedroom.

“The
government is doing all these, to encourage some other investors in the field
to come in,” Fashola, who was represented by Mr. Toyin Ayinde, the
commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, said that the
government had respect for professionals in the state, especially those in the
construction and housing industry.

According to him, it is this respect that produced the 2010
Law on Physical Planning and Physical Regulations in the state.

Fashola said that the government was interested in the
outcome of the forum and he wished them fruitful deliberations.

Charles Majoroh, aformer President of NIA, said that the
state government should focus attention on mass housing development for the
middle class.

In his paper on “Urban Housing Projection – The Role
of Numeracy in the Desire for Home Ownership,” Majoroh said the middle class housing
satisfaction was “the interface between the high and low class”.

“Without
making the middle class and their families satisfying housing wise, there is no
way we can have a thriving lower class. The middle class is the engine of any
country.

“The
ability of this class to satisfy the need to own their houses go a long way in
providing accommodation for others; satisfy the Small and Medium Enterprises
(SMEs) and provide massive employment opportunities,” he said.

THE Managing Director of Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Mohammed
Santuraki has condemned moves by the regulatory authority to merge any of the
Nation’s Development Finance Institutions (DFIs),including the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) and the Bank of Industry
(BOI).

Santuraki said such merger would not only be
counter-productive, but would amount to policy summersault, capable of
derailing the programmes articulated for the DFIs to boost Nigeria’s
economic growth and development within the shortest period.

The Managing Director, who spoke in Kaduna during the
Cotton-Value-Chain stakeholders meeting held at Asaa Pyramid Hotel, argued that
the situation in the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), where merger and consolidation
became the order of the day should be a food for thoughts for those pushing the
idea of merger of DFIs in Nigeria.

Santuraki said: “There are scores of DFIs in India and
other developing economies of the world, nobody has considered merging them
because they are playing their roles in various ways, how can anyone suggest a
merger of the only four DFIs we have in Nigeria in the name of consolidation.

According to him, “If consolidation and merger of deposit
banks from more than 80 in Nigeria to about 25 and later to about 12 has not
really worked, how can it then work in Development Finance Institutions; it
will be counter-productive”.

Santuraki further posited at a meeting attended by
commissioners of Agriculture in the cotton-growing states across the nation,
cotton farmers, expert and professionals from academic institutions, and other
development partners, that there is need for concerted efforts on ways to
improve on cotton production in the country.

However, he lauded the initiatives of the Central Bank of
Nigeria, CBN, for coming up with the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing
System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), saying the package was an eye opener
for stakeholders to take advantage of and ensure the development of the nation’s
agricultural system.

According to Santuraki considering the windows of
opportunities thrown open by the CBN, there is no way Nigeria farmers can
produce food crops the way and manner our fathers produced in the 50s,
stressing that beyond enhancing the process of lending to farmers for mass
production, the CBNand other financial institutions are also looking into
storage and marketing issues for farmers.

He assured participants at the stakeholders meeting which
was organised by the BOA that the nation’s Development Finance Institutions are
ready to look critically into all inhibitions standing in the way of Nigeria
large scale and small farmers with the aim of addressing them holistically,
stressing that matters such as insurance cover for agriculture loans, and other
risks in the sector would be addressed.

Besides, Head of the National Integrated Project
Implementation Office of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Jude Uzonwanne
said there has been a critical study of the problems facing all categories of
farmers in the country, but assured that in a short while the critical issues
standing in the way of farmers would be addressed.

Nzonwanne, who presented a catalogue of problems facing
farmers and an outline of aids, as financial and technical antidote put
together by experts and other professionals, said all hands should be on deck
for the success of the initiative, which is aimed at supporting about 54,000
cotton farmers across Nigeria.

THE Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC)
has commenced repair of damaged Nembe Creek Trunkline (NCTL), which resulted in
a deferment of some 60,000 barrels of oil per day of production after shutting
it down on May 4th, 2012 because of the activities of crude oil thieves.

The company said yesterday that on May 13th, SPDC’s
pipeline repair team disconnected two six-inch lines through which thieves were
stealing crude from the 97-kilometre line.

Shell stressed that the repair team will tackle eight other
illegal bunkering points as it continues to re-assert the integrity of the
facility, which was commissioned in 2010 at a cost of $1.1 billion to replace
an older pipeline.

Vice President, Health, Safety and Environment, Shell
Sub-Saharan Africa, Tony Attah, noted that “this is a difficult work requiring
careful planning and digging up several sections of the line in swamp and land,
investigating illegal bunkering points and deciding whether to clamp them or do
sectional replacement.

According to him, “when you add the cost of repairs to the
facility downtime and loss of revenue, it becomes clear how crude theft has
denied Nigeria of badly-needed revenue.”

He lamented also that the Trans Niger Pipeline has also been
suffering from crude theft leading to frequent shutdowns for repairs and
integrity checks.

“Clearly,
we are concerned by these increasing cases and appeal for concerted efforts to
stop the crime for the sake of the environment, the Nigerian state and the
communities themselves,” he said.

In December last year, the NCTL was shut down for one month
to repair damaged pipeline by oil thieves. The latest shutdown has led to the declaration
of force majeure on export of Bonny Light.

Managing Director of Shell Development Company of Nigeria
Limited (SPDC), Mutiu Sunmonu, had said recently that Nigeria was losing about
150,000 barrels of oil per day and $5 billion yearly, through crude oil theft.

He explained that the SPDC joint venture suffers a daily
loss of 43,000 barrels to thieves and illegal bunkering, adding that the trend
negatively impacted on the environment, beside depleting the country’s revenue.

According to him, “this is a serious attack on the state
the people, the economy, and the environment. Since, we calculated the crude
theft quantities based on volumes produced from flow stations and what is
received at terminals, it is true that additional oil is stolen between
wellheads and flow stations.”

The National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) says the
Federal Government has given licence to more than 50 independent power
producers to ensure stable power supply under the new dispensation.

Eyo
Ekpo, the NERC Commissioner for Marketing, Competition and Rates, who spoke on
Wednesday, said the new tariff regime would attract more investors.

He said
that the new tariff had been categorised in favour of low- income households
and small and medium enterprises.

Ekpo said
that some consumers' bills would increase by as low as 11 per cent under the
new tariff regime.

He said
that the bills of certain category of consumers, classified as “special
customers’’ including hospitals and street lights, would increase by
less than 11 per cent.

Ekpo said
that those in the R1 category, consisting of rural dwellers and the urban poor,
would pay lower tariffs as they would still continue to enjoy subsidy from the
Federal Government.

He said
that those in the C1 group, consisting artisans and small businesses, would
also pay low tariffs in line with the government’s policy of providing power to small
and medium enterprises.

“In working out the tariff, we place the burden differently.
We are to cross-subsidise those who cannot pay,” he said. “As such,
the cost of power to those in the R1 and C1 categories will still be low since
they will enjoy part of the cross-subsidy.”

The
commissioner said that NERC was charged with the statutory function of
effecting major reviews of electricity tariff every five years.

Oriental Energy Resources and AfrenNigeria an independent oil
& gas company listed on the Main Board of the London Stock Exchange, with a
diversified portfolio of production, development and exploration assets, have
announced that its Ebok North Fault Block exploration well, offshore south east
Nigeria, has succesfully made a new oil discovery.

Ebgert
Imomoh, chairman of Afren, while giving insight into the stage by stage process
that led to the finding, said the Ebok North Fault Block (Ebok NFB) exploration
well was spudded on 12 April 2012 by Afren and Oriental Energy Resources (“Oriental”) after
which it reached a total vertical (and measured) depth of 4,320 ft, with the
Transocean Adriatic lX jack-up drilling rig.

“The well was targeting a separate fault block structure
located to the north of the main Ebok field, and has successfully encountered
good quality oil in the same Tertiary reservoir sands, equivalent to those that
have been developed and are in production at the main Ebok field development.
The discovery of significant oil pay at this location underlines the high-grade
prospect that exists across the wider Ebok/Okwok/OML 115 area, and represents
an important step towards unlocking the full volume and value potential of what
is a core hub of Afren’s portfolio”.

The well
will now be suspended whilst Afren and Oriental determine the optimal
development solution for the new discovery, which will likely incorporate
synergies using the existing production, storage and off-take infrastructure at
the main Ebok field. The Transocean Adriatic IX rig will next be deployed to
commence the drilling of early production wells at the recent Okoro East
discovery.

Commenting
on the development Imomoh, said“We are delighted to have continued our run of exploration
success this year with the Ebok NFB well, which follows on from the Okoro East
discovery also offshore south east Nigeria and the Simrit-2 exploration well in
the Kurdistan region of Iraq, giving us a year to date exploration success rate
of 75 per cent (100 per cent of operated exploration).

The
proximity of Ebok NFB to existing infrastructure at the main Ebok field
production hub means that we can quickly monetise these newly discovered
volumes. We now look forward to the test results from Simrit-2 discovery in the
Kurdistan region of Iraq, followed by exploration drilling in East Africa.”

Nigeria’s manufacturing sector is bearing the brunt of the ever
growing state of insecurity in the northern part of country, brought about by
the activities of Boko Haram, the Islamic militant group, and businesses are
pulling out of the region.

Investors
and much of the skilled labour force, apparently worried by the continued
bombings, are taking flight, while would-be investors are tagging the region a
no- go area. BusinessDay’s findings show that the Fast Moving Consumer Goods
sub-sector, which has witnessed spectacular growth since 2008, faces prospects
of much lower earnings, following increasing security threats from the Islamic
militant group.

BusinessDay
investigation further reveals that escalating costs of sales and operating
costs are already eroding profit margins of consumer goods companies like Flour
Mills, Nestle, Cadbury and Dangote. According to our findings, input costs in
Nestle rose by 30 per cent of sales year-on-year from N43.9 billion in 2010 to
N57.2 billion. Also, marketing and distribution expenses increased by 10 per
cent, cost of sales rose in Flour Mills of Nigeria increased from N103.0
billion in the third quarter of 2010 to N123.22 billion in the corresponding
period of 2011.

For
Dangote Sugar, cost of sale increased from N50.70 billion in 2010 to N68.90
billion. This rise in sales costs cannot be removed from the state of
insecurity up North, which has come with high cost of transporting products to
the region – a large market for consumer products.

Commenting
on the impact of the state of insecurity in the North on his company, Keith
Richards, managing director of Promasidor Nigeria Limited said, “You know
with the borders closed, a lot of formal and informal exports are not
happening. People are not coming from Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Mali. So you
see a downturn in demand. The North is important to us. A lot of our brands are
doing very well here.

According
to informed industry sources, sales of packaged products are 30 percent up in
Lagos area, whereas they are 50 percent down in the North. The East is not
doing badly, and South-West is flat. The sources also said that GlaxoSmithKline
(GSK), and Cadbury have relocated from Maiduguri to Jos, GSK and Chi are
pulling out of Kano.

Cedric
Bra, analyst at Euromonitor International, a consumer market research
organization, has warned that the growing modern retail market in Nigeria risks
being compromised due to security concerns in northern parts of the country.

Procter
& Gamble (P&G) which has an expansive distribution network in the North
is affected by the shutting down of stores, stemming from the crisis.

But Manoj
Kumar, P&G chief for West Africa, says the company is up to the task. “We have
been here for 20 years. All sorts of crisis have come and gone. We are
therefore not worried like other companies who have spent a few years operating
in this terrain. The crisis has not dampened our commitment and enthusiasm in
Nigeria.”

The World
Investment Report (WIR) of the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) has said that the Nigeria’s domestic economy has lost N1.33
trillion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the Boko Haram crisis. According to
the report, FDI flows to Nigeria fell to $6.1 billion (N933.3 billion) in 2010,
a decline of about 29 per cent, from the $8.65 billion (N1.33 trillion)
realised in the 2009 fiscal year.

Similarly,
the 2010 annual report by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that the
total foreign capital inflow into the Nigerian economy was $5.99 billion. The
records show that FDI represented about a 78.1 per cent drop from $3.31 billion
in 2009.

Closely
related to the FMCG issue, is the impact of the crisis on food supplies from
the North to the South. Nigerians in the southern part of the country may need
to brace up for an impending food supply problem and accompanying higher prices
in the coming months, as food supplies from the North, which account for over
70 per cent of national consumption, are dwindling by the day, on account of
the Boko Haram crisis.

BusinessDay
found out that supply of yam tubers , a food product for which Nigeria is world
number one producer, has also dropped from 50 trucks to 15, a 70 per cent drop;
onion from 50 trucks to 10; and pepper 80 to 20, a 75 per cent fall.

The
Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers’ vice-chairman, Issa Umar, attributed
the problem to security issues, bad roads and high cost of diesel. Cost of
hiring these trucks has also gone up by about 113.3 per cent and prices of food
items have gone up by over 50 percent said Ahmed Yusuf, secretary-general,
Shukura Yam Sellers Association, Mile 12.

Usman
Muttaka, professor in the Department of Economics of the Ahmadu Bello University,
Zaria stated that “ investors are now becoming wary of coming to do business in
the country, especially in the north, because of the current security
challenge.” The decline in investment has been attributed to the
increasing insecurity in the country, as well as infrastructural decay.

The naira continued its downswing against the United States
dollar at the interbank for the third consecutive day as it fell by 90 kobo to
close at N158.90 to a dollar, as against the N158 to a dollar it stood on
Tuesday.

While some experts attributed the development to increased
demand for the greenback by offshore investors who sought to reduce their
exposure to the domestic market, others hinged it on rise in demand for the
dollar by oil importers.

In all, data obtained from Financial Market Dealers Association
(FMDA), showed that the local currency dropped by a total of N1.05 in the last
three days.

On the other hand, at the Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS),
yesterday, the local currency closed at N155.69 to a dollar, the same value it
was on Monday.

But the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) increased the volume of
dollar supplied to the 19 banks that participated in the auction to $200
million, from $150 million on Monday.

In his opinion, Emerging Markets Strategist, Standard Bank Plc,
Samir Gadio, said the naira primarily came under pressure because of increased
forex demand from offshore investors that sought to reduce their exposure to
the Nigerian market as well as profit-taking by investors.

Gadio revealed that the apex bank had intervened in the
interbank market on Tuesday; a move he said, helped in reversing intraday
losses on that day.

“The central bank has been virtually
out of the interbank market in 2012 and the proactive intervention would
indicate that it is somewhat worried about the sudden jump in $/N and will
attempt to prevent the build-up of further negative pressure,” he
explained, in an interview with THISDAY.

On her part, the Sub-Saharan Africa Economist, Renaissance
Capital (RenCap), Yvonne Mhango, who also spoke in an interview with THISDAY,
said the risk against the naira was gradually building up because some of the
fuel importers that did not import the petroleum product, had commenced
importation.

“That suggests that we are going to be
seeing increased demand for forex and we could see a slowdown in the build-up
of the forex reserves we have seen since the beginning of the year,” Mhango
added.

Commenting on the rise of inflation rate to 12.9 per cent
inflation in April, Gadio said the market as well as the apex bank had
anticipated the increase.

“In fact, the most likely scenario is
still that investors will be gradually positioning for an attractive duration
trade going forward given the forthcoming shift to a more accommodative
monetary policy stance later this year (if dollar/naira stability is ensured)
and a decline in inflation post-third quarter 2012.

“The main intermittent upside risk to
bond rates may actually come from the switch auctions planned by the Debt
Management Office and designed to exchange liquid on-the-run instruments for
off-the-run short term securities, although even this possibility is ambiguous
in light of the intrinsic demand for fixed income instruments amid a limited
pool of investable assets in Nigeria,” he added.

Worried by the low patronage of locally manufactured computers
and its accessories, the Federal Government has promised to protect all Information
Technology (IT) products, through new policy formulation and implementation.

National Information Technology
Development Agency (NITDA).
The government agency responsible for the implementation of IT policies for the
country, dropped the hint in Lagos at a one-day retreat on IT Hardware
Standards Development, organised by NTDA.

Director-General of NITDA, Prof Cleopas Angaye, in his remarks,
said there was need to benchmark practices and processes against international
standards to make local IT products competitive and marketable within and
outside the country.

The retreat, he said, was NITDA’s initiative to give impetus to the
buy-made-in-Nigeria policy of the Federal Government, which made it mandatory
for all government agencies to patronise locally developed hardware and
software.

The directive was however blatantly violated because of
government’s weak action towards the development local hardware and
software.

According to Angaye, “At the end of the retreat, there will
be issuance of new guidelines that will protect local IT products, and it will
be regarded as economic sabotage if government Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDAs) do not patronise Nigerian IT products.”

He said after the issuance of the new policy, it would become an
offence punishable by a prison term and fine under the NITDA Act, for public
procurement of non-made-in-Nigeria computers and IT products, where certified
local brands exist.

Angaye insisted that public funds should only be expended on
locally manufactured products, and that for Nigerians to benefit from the
planned policy, multinational companies would be invited to set up production
or assembly plants in Nigeria.

“With more than half the population of
West Africa Nigeria has a large enough market to justify foreign direct
investment in Information Technology. Instead, one finds that all the
multinational firms operate only marketing and sales promotion offices. The
transformation of Nigeria into a developed economy cannot be achieved by being
a consumer nation,” he said.

Between 2002 and 2007 several Original Equipment Manufacturers
(OEMs) were accredited by government to operate in the Nigerian IT
manufacturing spectrum, but owing to the expediency of the time, no strict
guidelines or standards were prescribed for them.

According to Angaye “the landscape has since changed, as
the industry has since grown and the operating Federal Government accreditation
of local OEMs and computer assembly plants has since
expired. New companies have also joined the industry. There is need therefore
to review the guidelines under which they operate and under which new entrants
are admitted.”

Angaye said, in giving accreditation to local OEMs, the
intention of the Federal Government was to develop the indigenous IT industry,
create employment through local assembly of computers and build the capacity of
IT entrepreneurs, but this can only be achieved if Nigerians patronise local
brands, explaining that the policy was mandatory for the public sector where
the products to be procured were manufactured or assembled in Nigeria.

Angaye who frowned at the display and use of non-made-in-Nigeria
computers in government offices and for government business where certified
local brands are available, said the action was not only an unpatriotic act but
also an act of sabotage and disregard for both government policy and extant
statute.

He said a monitoring unit had been created within NITDA to
undertake regular checks to ensure compliance to the regulation throughout the
Federal Public Service.

NITDA, he said, would seek the collaboration of the Federal
Ministry of Education to ensure that the accreditation of schools and renewal
of accreditation would depend partly on the establishment of Information
Technology laboratories equipped with locally manufactured IT products.

As the World Bank rounds up its seven-year assistance worth $120
million for the sustainable development of Nigeria’s solid
minerals sector, stakeholders are playing Oliver Twist. They are clamouring for
an extension of the project to enable a second phase to start as soon as
possible.

One of the project objectives is to establish a basis for
poverty reduction and rural economic renewal in selected areas of the country
through the development of non-farm income-generating opportunities through
small-scale and artisanal mining and to diversify from oil sources of income.

The second is to increase the government’s
long-term institutional and technical capacity to manage Nigeria’s
mineral resources in a sustainable way.

At the end of project stakeholders’ workshop in Abuja, Minister of Mines
and Steel development, Mr. Musa Mohammed Sada, said: “The
view of the ministry is that the SMMRP (Sustainable Management of Mineral
Resources Project) is closing at a wrong time in that government is not quite
ready for disclosure. The World Bank intervention needed to continue till the
opportune time when government will be in a position to take over seamlessly
and build on project achievements.”

He stated that as mining was very capital-intensive, government
was taking its time to operationalise the Solid minerals Development Fund as
provided in the Solid Minerals and Mining Act 2007.

“The sector also requires adequate
funding from annual appropriations to the level that donor support will no
longer be required,” he said. “Until we reach a comfortable level for the sector, we
believe that the World Bank assistance will still be needed. Accordingly, we
hereby make a case for SMMRP Project II to enable intervention (in) some other
critical areas in pursuit of solid minerals development, as a stop gap to keep
momentum and forestall collapse of the lofty achievements of SMMRP”, he
said.

He however gave the verdict that the project achieved its
purpose and expressed his appreciation to both committees of the National
Assembly on Solid Minerals Development for the “wonderful support” they
accorded the project and the ministry at large. He also thanked the World Bank
for making all its achievements possible.

Among the achievements were the use of $10 million dollars from
the $120 million for micro-grant as a poverty alleviation scheme targeted at
artisanal and small scale miners and mining communities, with 245 mining
cooperatives benefiting, and the upgrade of the National Geosciences Researches
Laboratory, which it supported with state-of-the-art facilities.

The World Bank fund was also used in the promotion of Nigeria’s
minerals endowment, revision of Geodetic Network and Cartographic Coverage,
environmental management capacity building programmes and train the trainers’ course
in governance, accounting, finance and taxation in the mining sector.

The project also facilitated the establishment of the Nigerian
Institute of Mining and Geosciences, geological information gathering for
investment and national planning; and training and capacity building contents
under which the World Bank Project trained 10,000 Nigerians from both public
and private sectors in various components of the sector.

Similarly, it engaged in the provision of field vehicles, civil
works and technical equipment for the ministry and its agencies as well as the
development of selected minerals for import substitution and provision of
livelihood in mining communities.

The project also undertook baseline data collection, provision
of legal and regulatory framework and administration of mineral titles through
the establishment of the Mining Cadastre Office which is fully equipped for the
transparent and efficient grant and management of mining titles, in line with
international best practices.